I still meet people that are business owners that say ‘ I’m not into facebook, I don’t want everyone looking at my stuff, I’m a private person’.

As a marketing person, this absolutely baffles me. If you are a business owner, your primary goal is to get more business. How do you do that? By being where your customers are. More and more, all of these customers are on social media.

Besides being able to tweak your privacy settings, like building a list of ‘acquaintances’ for posts to business acquaintances and everyone else and a list of ‘friends’ to share personal status updates with, the era of being a ‘private person’ is slowly diminishing. People want to connect, share experiences, talk about great products or things that resonate with them. This creates a huge opportunity for businesses to understand their customers better and build deeper, lasting relationships.

The networks you are on depends on your business. I usually recommend the big 3 for business: Facebook, Twitter and Linked In. With today’s resources, it’s easy to make sure you look the same across the board. Here are a few tips to start building your brand:

What is your brand? – Are you selling insurance? Are you selling a service? Think about what that looks like and what pictures and names would attract your clientele. If you’re selling cookies, make cookies part of your title. Don’t make customer’s guess what you do.

Put your personality in- One of the great speakers from last week’s Hispana Leadership Conference, Luly B, has an excellent example of a page with personality. It’s easy to see that she is a mom, a business owner, and a speaker.

Luly B’s great business profile

Look the same across all platforms- it’s easy to find guides to make sure your profile images, header images and twitter backgrounds all look the same.

Click on the link for all sizes

Is it time consuming? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely. You will look like a legitimate professional that cares about their image and not just some start-up. Think about how you look like in swim trunks and a t-shirt versus wearing your best suit. Social media is an interview with your clients, would you wear your surf shorts to an interview? You are still the same person, just more presentable.